21 November 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The United Methodist Open Door gave out nearly 800 Thanksgiving meals on Monday morning and plans to give out more.
“We served 787 families this morning,” said The United Methodist Open Door Executive Director, Deann Smith. “We’ll probably do about the same this afternoon, and we’ll go also Tuesday and Wednesday.”
This year is The United Methodist Open Door’s 24th annual Thanksgiving food distribution.
“We have vegetables, canned vegetables and canned fruit and soups and those kinds of things, pastas and then we also have fresh produce and turkey,” said Smith.
Smith says their biggest partner is USD 259.
“The schools do competitions between themselves and then bring us those items so that we can feed the community,” said Smith.
Smith says the majority of people they serve are low-income, many of whom make less than $10K.
“They just hope to have the basics on the table, and so we want to give them, just like all the rest of us, a nice Thanksgiving meal so that their family can sit around the table and give thanks and have that same kind of blessing the rest of us do,” said Smith.
The United Methodist Open Door will be hosting the Thanksgiving food distribution again from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. on both Tuesday, Nov. 21 and Wednesday, Nov. 22. They are located at 2130 E. 21st St. N.